TiVo : Should Virgin Media and Cable & Wireless Worldwide merge?

[GrimUpNorth]

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

Virgin better be quick, Vodapone is planning a £700 million bid for C&W Worldwide, could Virgin afford a £700-800 million bid for C&W Worldwide

Virgin better be quick, my mate is planning to come round in the next couple of weeks and collect my old shed, could Virgin borrow a van to get round here first and beat him to it?

Cheers

Grim

[Alan Fry]

Originally Posted by m419

That's rubbish, they can.

But BT probably want too much money for it.

Westminster City Council has mentioned that it has never had any involvement in Westminster Cable Television. Therefore it remains a dispute between BT and Virgin Media.

I don't think Cable would be popular anyway in the borough, when the service was running a full Analogue service in 1995, records showed that it had 50,000 customers out of a possible 100,000+ as of 2011 it had 2,000 Analogue TV customers which is not enough money to cover the lease even.

Do BT plan to launch BT Infinity in the Westminster area?

[m419]

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

Do BT plan to launch BT Infinity in the Westminster area?

You've asked that already, BT plans to do that later this year and the southern ends of Camden like Holborn.

[Alan Fry]

Originally Posted by m419

You've asked that already, BT plans to do that later this year and the southern ends of Camden like Holborn.

We will have to wait and see in terms of if VM will try to buy C&W Worldwide, but if it did, it would be a major boost for VM

[m419]

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

We will have to wait and see in terms of if VM will try to buy C&W Worldwide, but if it did, it would be a major boost for VM

No council or local authority has ever refused BT or Virgin Media to dig up streets to improve there infrastructures, in conservation areas, the local council does a consultation with local residents and businesses to see if it is ok to let BT or Virgin Media do any kind of works in the area including the installation of street cabinets,street furniture ect.... Westminster City Council has never carried out any consultation and neither BT or Virgin Media have approached the council with any plans to upgrade Westminster Cable TV, they have however, applied for planning permission for BT Infinity.

Therefore the problem with Westminster Cable TV is between BT and Virgin Media. Virgin Media probably feel that the price BT are asking for would not be worthwhile carrying out. Milton Keynes however is different as many residents have no choice but to use the cable service which means a stable customer base and enough revenue to upgrade as well as making some kind of profit in the long term.

[Alan Fry]

Originally Posted by m419

No council or local authority has ever refused BT or Virgin Media to dig up streets to improve there infrastructures, in conservation areas, the local council does a consultation with local residents and businesses to see if it is ok to let BT or Virgin Media do any kind of works in the area including the installation of street cabinets,street furniture ect.... Westminster City Council has never carried out any consultation and neither BT or Virgin Media have approached the council with any plans to upgrade Westminster Cable TV, they have however, applied for planning permission for BT Infinity.

Therefore the problem with Westminster Cable TV is between BT and Virgin Media. Virgin Media probably feel that the price BT are asking for would not be worthwhile carrying out. Milton Keynes however is different as many residents have no choice but to use the cable service which means a stable customer base and enough revenue to upgrade as well as making some kind of profit in the long term.

Could Virgin Media complain to Ofcom that BT is stopping them from improving their service and thus restricting competition in the Westminster area?

Also why do many residents in Milton Keynes have no choice but to use the cable service?

And is BT/VM planning to upgrade the cable network in Milton Keynes?

[m419]

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

Could Virgin Media complain to Ofcom that BT is stopping them from improving their service and thus restricting competition in the Westminster area?

Also why do many residents in Milton Keynes have no choice but to use the cable service?

And is BT/VM planning to upgrade the cable network in Milton Keynes?

No there is nothing Ofcom can do about it. BT's Cable networks are part of BT Global, a commercialised division of BT, like BT Cellnet used to be, therefore BT Global does not have the same rules to follow as its main division.

With regards to Milton Keynes, as I explained to you before, it lays in a few valleys restricting TV signals and there are lots of trees also obstructing the signals, therefore in the 70's Post Office Telephones (Now BT) built a Cable Television system to deal with that problem. By the late 80's the service began offering pay-tv channels with a set top box.

There is ongoing talks but there are no dates for when they will or when they can upgrade

[Digital Fanatic]

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

Could Virgin Media complain to Ofcom that BT is stopping them from improving their service and thus restricting competition in the Westminster area?

Also why do many residents in Milton Keynes have no choice but to use the cable service?

And is BT/VM planning to upgrade the cable network in Milton Keynes?

Complained for years and got nowhere... VM are walking away from it, it's just not worth it for them.

[m419]

Originally Posted by Digital Fanatic

Complained for years and got nowhere... VM are walking away from it, it's just not worth it for them.

Yeah let BT deal with the problem, they own it, they can sort it

[Tim Deegan]

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

Also why do many residents in Milton Keynes have no choice but to use the cable service?

I presume that it's for a similar reason to the way it used to be in Stevenage. Ariels and satelite dishes used to be banned. So a cable service was provided for all new town residents.

[m419]

Originally Posted by Tim Deegan

I presume that it's for a similar reason to the way it used to be in Stevenage. Ariels and satelite dishes used to be banned. So a cable service was provided for all new town residents.

They were banned, but they don't work there anyway. Same with Westminster, TV reception is terrible.

Over the year, the transmitter is to be improved for Digital TV coverage.

Most areas that were not Cabled by BT in the 70's were instead covered by Rediffusion, areas like Camden was covered by it, it became commercialised as well and because it couldn't be upgraded they just left it to go into administration.

[Tim Deegan]

Originally Posted by m419

They were banned, but they don't work there anyway. Same with Westminster, TV reception is terrible.

Over the year, the transmitter is to be improved for Digital TV coverage.

Most areas that were not Cabled by BT in the 70's were instead covered by Rediffusion, areas like Camden was covered by it, it became commercialised as well and because it couldn't be upgraded they just left it to go into administration.

Milton Keynes isn't full of steep sided valleys. So although they may have used reception as an excuse, it was more likely to do with the fact that it is cheaper to get developers to install cable in a new town as it expands, rather than have to build a huge transmitter to cover the area.

There is no reason why satelite shouldn't work in MK.

[Kymmy]

Originally Posted by Tim Deegan

There is no reason why satelite shouldn't work in MK.

It's not a case of them working, it's a case of restrictions

http://www.miltonkeynes.gov.uk/mkgro...e.asp?id=75818

[Tim Deegan]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

It's not a case of them working, it's a case of restrictions

http://www.miltonkeynes.gov.uk/mkgro...e.asp?id=75818

So like Stevenage used to be, as I said previously??

I presume you know about Stevenage, as you don't exactly live a million miles away?

[Kymmy]

No idea as I've only ever been there three times and two of them was on company training many years ago..